Economists use "demographic time bomb" to refer to places where
consumer spending and the national birth rate are both low.
Often, they're entangled in a vicious cycle: As people feel the
economy tightening, they have fewer kids, leading to even less
money flowing into the economy, and so on.

The imbalance is mainly due to
men seeking women up north, in mainland China, as the women
there are commonly viewed as less choosy than in Hong Kong,
according to experts in gender studies. Each year, the city
also brings in thousands of foreign domestic helpers (who are
almost always female) from countries like Indonesia and the
Philippines. The two trends have coalesced into a tense climate
for younger generations.

"I am very nervous. Finding a boyfriend in Hong Kong is
extremely difficult, and there is a lot of pressure," 26-year-old
Sarah Fung
told Nikkei Asian Review.

As is typical with other demographic time bombs,
Hong Kong's population is rapidly aging. The average life
expectancies for men and women are the longest in the world: 87
years for women and 81 years for men. That means fewer people
working, but more people relying on social services paid for by
the young.

Meanwhile, fertility rates in Hong Kong are some of the lowest in
the world. According to CIA data, the estimated birth rate is
just
1.19 children per woman — far below the rate of 2.2 children
that experts say countries must hit in order to keep populations
steady.

The combination tends to make demographic time bombs worse. As
seniors require more public funds, shrinking younger generations
must bear ever-rising costs. These stressors make it even harder
to start or grow a family, to say nothing of the baseline
difficulties posed by the gender imbalance.

The challenge is so great that Paul Yip, a University of
Hong Kong demographer,
told the Wall Street Journal in 2012 that, according to his
research, 20% of Hong Kong's female population born today should
expect to remain single for the rest of their lives.

Hong Kong's government has tried to stem its crisis by
bringing more women into the workforce, which
research suggests helps fertility rates go back on the rise.
Currently, 55% of Hong Kong women are in the labor force.
The global average is 63%, according to OECD data.

In that respect, Hong Kong is poised to help itself out. There
are 852 men for every 1,000 women, and there will likely be
one million more women than men in the next 50 years. In
other words, there is no shortage of women to enter the
workforce.

What remains to be seen is whether Hong Kong embraces that
untapped pool of labor or lets the demographic time bomb keep on
ticking.